NBC News reported on Thursday Emanuel Lutchman was in contact with a member of the Islamic State in Syria who urged him to attack diners at a restaurant in Rochester, New York, with a machete.

It turns out Lutchman was instead in contact with an FBI informant who received thousands of dollars from the agency.

He didn’t have money to buy masks, zip-ties, knives, duct tape, ammonia and latex gloves that were allegedly supposed to be used in the attack, so the FBI picked up the tab, according to NBC.

He reportedly tried to impress his government handlers by talking about pressure cooker bombs and knives.

“New years [sic] is here soon. Do operations and kill some kuffar,” the informant told Lutchman, an ex-con with mental problems who had recently attempted suicide.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

Beverley Carridice, Lutchman’s grandmother, said he had suffered from psychiatric problems since childhood and was not taking his psychiatric medications when she saw him in August.

Carridice said Lutchman would not have planned an attack on his own. “Not on his own,” she said. “He’s not the type of person. But he’s easily persuaded,” she told NBC.

Lutchman was arrested on Wednesday after he recorded a video tape pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said to be the leader of the Islamic State. He will be charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization and faces up to 20 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

“According to the complaint, as part of Emanuel Lutchman’s attempt to provide material support to ISIL, he planned to kill innocent civilians on New Year’s Eve in the name of the terrorist organization.” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin said in a statement. “Thankfully, law enforcement was able to intervene and thwart Lutchman’s deadly plans.”

“The arrest of Emanuel Lutchman is an important reminder of the new normal of global terrorism,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The “new normal” is the FBI setting up mentally ill patsies and then announcing it has prevented terror attacks.

The FBI has arranged a large number of terrorism “stings” since the attacks of September 11, 2001, in order to make the case that it is tracking down and prosecuting terrorists.

A report by Mother Jones and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkley released in 2011 revealed that it is now common practice for the FBI to create terror plots from scratch and entrap witless and even mentally ill patsies.

“The report reveals that the FBI regularly infiltrates communities where they suspect terrorist-minded individuals to be engaging with others. Regardless of their intentions, agents are sent in to converse within the community, find suspects that could potentially carry out ‘lone wolf’ attacks and then, more or less, encourage them to do so. By providing weaponry, funds and a plan, FBI-directed agents will encourage otherwise-unwilling participants to plot out terrorist attacks, only to bust them before any events fully materialize,” RT reported last August.